Cheers to 8 Years!

Back in September, Cory and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and this is the first year since, gosh, 2014 that we weren’t either in Rwanda or gearing up to leave for Rwanda. There is the exception of 2016 (the year Baker was born) but we had a newborn baby and I’m fairly certain there wasn’t much of a celebration that year as we were knee deep in breast pumps, sleepless nights, and dirty diapers.

To be honest, when Cory suggested that we get out of town for the weekend, I was hesitant. Spending a couple hundred dollars (or more) just wasn’t in the budget and places that were in the budget didn’t seem that appealing to me. I would have rather stayed at home then spend $100 on a place that I wasn’t comfortable. I’m really not a snob when it comes to hotels but it has to be clean. Plain and simple.

So Cory stepped up to the task and found the cutest little chalet in Dillsboro, NC. I had a cheer event that Friday night and had to teach on Saturday morning (yes, technically I have three jobs) so Baker was picked up by her Gigi and Pop early Saturday morning and we left as soon as I was done teaching. Dillsboro is only about an hour and half from us so we had plenty of time in town even though we only had one night.

Our first stop was lunch! The downtown of Dillsboro is such a cute, quaint area with a couple really good restaurants, shops, and a brewery. We had lunch at Foragers Canteen and listened to some live music at the brewery.

I had the best pulled pork tacos and Cory had a burger! After lunch, we decided to burn off the calories and walk to a few of the shops.

There was a chocolate shop and an ice cream shop and somehow we passed up on both of those–but only to go to the Christmas shop, which had about 14 rooms of ornaments. It was insane!

We got to the chalet and checked in to our room. The owner of the chalet was this little old man who walked us to our room and went over everything with us. It was really sweet and reminded me of my Papa with his attention to detail. Once we got settled, we sat on the porch and watched a little bit of the Clemson game.

This was our first trip away without Baker. Typically, she travels anywhere we do but not this time! We’ve had nights away from her but this was the first time out of town without her. In a way, we didn’t know what do with ourselves!

We decided to get ready and drive in to Bryson City and explore their downtown area. There was an outdoors shop that Cory really wanted to go to and we were gonna grab supper too.

Unfortunately, most of the shops were already closed by the time we got there but we enjoyed seeing what was there.

We made the mistake of waiting until we were in Bryson City to think about dinner and I really had my mind set on a good steak. We knew there was a steakhouse that had great reviews back in Dillsboro so we headed back to eat at Boots Steakhouse. Despite most of the reviews saying you needed a reservation, we were able to get a table outside immediately. It was such a nice night, we actually wanted to sit outside!

Lucky for us, we got there at just the right time because it got busy soon after we sat down when Western Carolina’s football game ended. Our waitress kept apologizing but anyone that has kids knows how nice it is to be able to sit and have a meal AND a conversation. We soaked up every second!

Isn’t he handsome?? And Baker totally has his eyes!

After dinner, we headed back to the ice cream place for desert!

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw a tour of the room which had a big jacuzzi in the room. One of my favorite things is to soak in the tub so we turned a movie on and enjoyed it!

The next morning, we had breakfast delivered to our door!

Cory really wanted to get some hiking in and I really wanted to nap but marriage is all about compromise so we slept in late and then headed to a few easily accessible waterfalls Cory had found for us.

We spent a few hours in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park exploring some waterfalls!

The first part of the loop we did was really easy and paved. It was almost like a park and a lot of people were fishing in the river. Many of the waterfalls we’ve hiked to don’t have rivers along the trail so it was really nice to have these views along the way!

Cheers to 8 years!

He keeps life interesting, to say the least!

The trail to the 3rd waterfall was a tad bit more difficult and more like a trail we are used to. It was narrow and not paved like the beginning section of the loop.

But it was worth the hike (it really wasn’t even a hike!) to see the waterfalls!

On the way back down from the park, we drove back through Bryson City and had to stop to get Cory’s picture with the RC sign (Cory actually goes by RC now and has for a few years, but I just can’t call him anything other than Cory).

As we headed home, we stopped in Rabun Gap at a produce stand that had pumpkins. Other than having a hot tub/jacuzzi in the place we stayed, the only other thing I wanted to do was get some pumpkins! We ended up leaving with apples and peaches instead though.

Coming home from our night away, we missed Baker and were excited to see her but neither of us realized how much we needed this time away. Every anniversary (and different times throughout the year although not nearly enough) we make sure that we set time aside for each other but there’s just something different about going away from home to celebrate. We had over 24 hours of uninterrupted time with each other and it felt so, so good! We had some crazy good conversations and just felt connected again after our short getaway. It was an important reminder that we don’t have to spend $$$ on a fancy getaway to enjoy time with each other and I’m so thankful Cory planned this trip for us. It’s been a crazy 8 years and I’m so blessed that I get to do life with Cory.